Extremely rare 18th century Bezoar - Cabinet of Curiosities Item For Sale

Whatever the origins of the belief in curing poison, bezoars were popular in the Middle Ages and into the 17th century as antidotes. They were carried as charms, included as decor or attached to drinking and eating vessels to protect the diner, and tests were even designed to detect fakes –the selling of which was a punishable offense
Bezoars were introduced into Western medicine by Arabian doctors during the twelfth century. They were used as antidotes to arsenic, the poison used most commonly in European courts. The use of bezoars was widespread during the sixteenth century, and their value was ten times more than their weight in gold. These were rare and expensive items and many kings owned one or more specimens, some of which were mounted as pieces of jewelry. Sixteenth and seventeenth century physicians wrote extensively about them, describing their properties and use. ‘Oriental bezoars’ (mostly from Asian porcupines) were introduced at this time.Another Frenchman represented in our collections’ holdings, barber surgeon Ambroise Paré, conducted an experiment to test the healing properties of a bezoar stone in the 1500s. A royal cook caught stealing silver had been sentenced to death. The cook was offered the alternative of being poisoned and then being given a bezoar under Paré’s supervision. If the cook survived the poisoning, he’d be spared. The cook lived only seven hours after the poison was administered, and Paré concluded the bezoar could not cure all poisons.
"In olden times Bezoars were more valuable than gold and mounted in elaborate gold and gem studded holders in medieval treasuries. They were believed to possess quite extraordinary supernatural powers including being a universal antidote, potentates fearing death by poisoning from the Shahs of Persia to The Holy Roman Emperors would anxiously dip theirs in their drinks. The Sixteenth Century French Royal Physician Amboise Pare was something of a skeptic who unusually for his day liked to experiment to see what treatments worked and did not work; wishing to test the efficacy of a Bezoar he procured a cook who had been sentenced to death for stealing silver and made him drink a poisoned draught in which Pare dunked a bezoar on the promise of his life if he survived. He spent seven hours in agony before dying, however whilst Pare was convinced others merely muttered that he’d used the wrong type of poison and carried on convinced of the bezoar’s power. I am in love with my Bezoars – few things are capable of giving me such intense feelings of pleasure, for me they are more beautiful, and infinitely rarer, than pearls. In fact they are very similar to pearls as they form in the gastrointestinal tracts of mammals, often around alien objects, perhaps a tooth that has either been swallowed or grown in the wrong place; perhaps an ever enlarging ball of hair, this is slowly polished and perfected by the animals gut into the most perfect and most beautiful shiny spheres."
A Rare Large Bezoar Stone Probably from the Stomach of a Goat or Camel
SELLING ONLY THE BEZOAR STONE FROM THE PHOTO (THE OTHER ITEMS ARE DECORATIONS)